I just nodded; I wasn’t trying to be a hero today. There were four Titans here. I was basically useless compared to them.
As the brothers—but not really brothers—stalked off into the war zone with Hound, I made myself go flat against the wall. How far could Cronus and I be apart from each other now? Why the fuck was Sickness breaking down our bond?Howwas Sickness breaking down our bond?
All of these thoughts swirling around my head, I barely noticed when a shadow moved to my left until a hand clamped around my mouth. One second we were standing in Egypt, dust flying everywhere, and the next I was transported to a deserted island, right on the beach. Pain laced through my entire body as I felt the loss of Cronus from our bond. I fell to the ground panting and my gaze fell on a pair of bronzed male feet.
Zeus’ voice was unmistakable: “So the bond thing is true?”
“Help,” I wheezed, pain slicing through my stomach. It felt like someone had taken a fishhook and yanked me across the universe by my belly button.
“It shouldn’t kill you to be apart, but I’m not really one hundred percent sure.”
I was going to pass out. The pain was rolling through my body in waves as anger flooded through me.
This motherfucker needed to die.
“What. Do. You. Want?” I rasped, looking up at him from where I’d collapsed on the sand.
He crouched down, all but putting his crotch in my face. “I want Cronus, ‘king of the Titans,’ to feel a little lost and hurt,” he mocked. “I want him to leave the world saving to me andmychildren. I want him to stay in his fucking prison and leave Earth and its humans to their rightful leader!”
I was dying, this is what dying felt like. This was period cramps times one thousand, in my belly, my chest, my head. This selfish fucker was hurting me because he wanted more attention? Megalomaniac.
How dare he! The Greek gods couldn’t even lock the sins away, so this was all a fucking stupid attention-seeking action. Finding strength buried deep, I reeled my arm back, and lightning-quick punched him right in the dick. When he keeled over backwards, I jumped up and the whole beach swam. Trying to run away, more like limp away, only worked for about twenty feet before I heard him pounding the sand behind me.
Anger. Fear. Rage. Survival. All bubbled inside me. A dark feeling exploded in my chest. Spinning around, I threw my arms up and screamed bloody murder.
The pendant at my chest pulsed. An inky black magic poured from my fingers and wrapped around Zeus’s shoulders like rubber bands. He cried out in shock at the same moment a sonic boom sounded in the air and Cronus appeared at my side, mad as fuck.
“ZEUS!” he roared and the entire beach shook, like a motherfucking earthquake.
Zeus had fallen over, restricted by my black magical bands, and now looked at me with a mixture or horror and fascination.
“She’s a demon…”
Cronus looked from Zeus to my hands and back again. When my gaze fell to my fingers, I gasped. “Fuck! Get it off!” I shook my hands vigorously. Black ink, like tattoos, coated the tips of my fingers as evidence of the dark power I’d just unleashed.
Cronus tucked me into his body and the pain I’d felt completely vanished in his presence. “I will be back for you. I will have your head for this,” he told his delinquent, psychotic son.
We blinked from that beach and suddenly we were back in Bali, in our cabana, the food plates still lying on the deck. Cronus cupped my face and drew one thumb across my lips. “Hyperion is holding Turmoil and Strife, ready to place them in your necklace but…” He pulled up my hand and gently kissed my fingertips. “Tell me what happened with this, because I would let the whole world burn before causing you any harm.”
I would let the whole world burn before causing you harm.
Did he even realize he’d just said the most romantic thing possible? Like ever.
I couldn’t think straight, I just kept thinking about being naked in that water with him and wishing I’d given myself to him last night. Finally, I found my words and quickly relayed the entire story.
“So you felt rage and fear and screamed, and the black stuff just … came out?”
I nodded. “After the necklace pulsed.”
He cursed. “You didn’t say that before.”
I winced. “I forgot.”
He started to pace the room. “This is exactly what I wanted to avoid!”
Fear started to trickle back into my body. “Cronus, what aren’t you telling me?”
When Cronus turned to face me, he looked completely devastated.
“Maisey, I don’t think the necklace is the box. The necklace is just the conduit to portal the sins into the real box.”
Holy shit. Holy shit. This was going to be bad.
He let out a strangled sigh. “I think you’re the box.”
#TotallyFucked #NotInTheGoodWay
